Classroom lesson · The Mongolian Steppe · 🇲🇳 Mongolia

The Mongolian Steppe

An endless ocean of grass where horses roam free

A vast green Mongolian steppe stretching to the horizon with a blue sky

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The steppe is a huge grassland that covers most of Mongolia - a rolling sea of green and golden grass that seems to go on forever. There are almost no fences and very few trees. Horses, sheep, goats and cattle graze freely across it, looked after by nomadic families who have lived this way for thousands of years.

Tell me more

Mongolia's steppe is part of the largest grassland in the world, running from central Europe all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In Mongolia alone the grassland covers around 80 percent of the country. From a hilltop it looks like an ocean - the grass ripples in the wind in great waves, and the sky seems even bigger than usual.

The steppe changes colour with the seasons. In spring, after the snow melts, it bursts into bright green and tiny wildflowers. By late summer it turns gold and amber. In winter, a thick blanket of snow covers everything. Nomadic families plan their whole year around these seasons, moving their herds to wherever the grass is freshest.

Wild animals share the steppe with the herds. Saiga antelope run in groups across the plains, their strange bulging noses helping them filter dusty air. Eagles circle overhead scanning for prey. At night, the sky above the steppe is extraordinary - because there are so few towns or electric lights, the stars fill the sky from edge to edge.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01If there were no fences or roads, how do you think families know where they are going?
  2. 02How is life on the steppe similar to and different from your own life?
  3. 03Why might the night sky look so much better in the countryside than in a city?
Try this

Classroom activity

Create a steppe seasons wheel. Divide a large circle into four quarters (spring, summer, autumn, winter). In each quarter, draw what the steppe looks like, one animal you might spot, and one thing a nomadic family would be doing at that time of year.